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Friday, March 18, 2011

Just plugging away at things here...

Remember a couple weeks ago I was in shock over the estimate for replacing the bathroom counter top in our old house? When I wrote that, SuSaw left me a comment saying that she had painted a counter top using "granite" paint, followed by several coats of clear urethane. She thought it looked great and it had held up pretty well. Well, thank you SuSaw!

This is how the counter top now looks.

Closeup:

Pretty darned acceptable—right?

I sanded the old painted counter, then sprayed it with spray primer and then the paint, which is called "Stone Effects." The stone paint creates a texture that is fairly rough, but once it was good and dry I started adding layers of clear, satin urethane—3 in all, with a good long drying time between layers. This sort of fills in the texture a bit, though there is still a pleasantly nubbly feel to it. It cost me some time, some effort and about $15 worth of materials. The counter top guys wanted $1200 for the cheapest Corian, on sale. (Does that sound outrageous, or am I just not up with prices of things?!)

We are working away at getting the old house ready to try to sell again. We WILL sell it. We interviewed realtors and selected a woman who seems like she has a great affinity and feel for our kind of old 1914 house, which gives me some confidence. I never felt like the realtor we had before quite appreciated the charms of an old house. She wanted everything "updated". Bah. Anyway, I have a good feeling about this one. I hope she comes through for us.I was a bit hesitant to tell her how I had dealt with the counter in the bathroom, but when I did she got very excited. "That's fabulous! I need to write that down!" and she grabbed her notebook and started copying the info off the paint cans. See why I like this one?

We have a lot of work to do in the next few weeks. Our new realtor has some good ideas for freshening things up. All good, but equals work for us. She really is a DIY woman after my own heart though. She said the light fixtures with bright brass are dated and cheesy for today's home buyer. I think I looked alarmed at another possible big expense, though I had to agree about the bright brass. Then she said, "take them down and spray paint them dull brass or bronze." Wow. There's a concept. I guess if I can spray paint formica, I can spray paint light fixture fittings.

Meanwhile here at home the daffodils are blooming.

And the spring green is coming out all over the place. Lots of inspiration for the 12 x 12 "chartreuse" challenge.

Terry, I'm so happy you decided to try my method. I would not try this on a kitchen counter unless one was very careful about always using cutting boards...lol but for a bathroom counter it works a treat. I would use this particularly for a home I'm trying to sell as so often whomever buys it wants to gut out kitchens and bathrooms anyway.

I'm Susan Sawatzky who took the bird class from you in Silverton in January.

I've been gazing at the outrageous greens when I walk home from my water-walking every day. They are particularly vivid (flaunting floozies in some cases) this year -- all the rain has loosed greens galore. And of course, the budding trees are blooming above them and the rain keeps them looking fresh and wet. Can't decide whether I love or hate all this moss and fresh leafy wets drips.

Your house work (_not_ housework) sounds, as usual, magical ! The realtor really is one of a kind.

Howdy,I love the counter but the white knobs look outdated. To match your faucet I'd install simple chrome knobs.Home Depot and Lowes have chrome knobs for around $2 each. It will give your bathroom a modern look and reflect the window light.And hang mirror over the toilet. You be amazed how much guys love that.It will also reflect your window light. If your bathroom has no view install faux wood blinds to give privacy.And remove the bar of soap, too granny and "unhygenic" looking,get pump type of soap. We did that to sell our 1969 house without spending too much $$. We did a walk through with our realtor and improved the small stuff and it worked! We sold our house in 2 weeks.I hope this helps you from an outsiders point of view.

Counter top looks fantastic!!I have a can of 'hammered' aluminum spray that I used on our fugly shiny gold fixtures. I even sprayed a plastic tube to match for a homemade pendant light. Another great place to look for things is the Habitat for Humanity re-stores.

The countertop is totally amazing! Although $1200 sounds like a lot, I know that Corian is expensive. I have a spot in my Corian kitchen sink that has a hairline crack. A new sink would be preposterously expensive and this one can be polished out. I'm wondering if there is a similar trick for repairing Corain...

The counter top looks great. Good ole spray paint. It can help many things. LOL $1200 for that small counter top is highway robbery. Seeing the pictures of the daffodils makes me feel that spring will get here in Illinois. My daffodils are up about 4" but expecting a cold week ahead.